Reverse Road Rage

I was trying to drive through a canyon on the way home today. The other cars were not cooperating, you see they weren't moving. At first I thought, umm did you forget, the green light means that we go? Then as I sat there for ten minutes, & then twenty, without having progressed even one car length, it became apparent that something was wrong. The stretch of road, depending on who you ask, is either the 8th or 3rd most deadly in the country.

I sighed & thought about how I did not want to be stuck in a canyon. I watched a green jeep that was trying to get by on the shoulder, then would invariably have to shove his way back into our lane, only to try to make a break for it again a few minutes. (Yes, I assume that it's a he). I saw the otherwise attractive young men get out of their car & run around it over & over. This inspired another car load of young men to do the same while I thought "I don't know what's happening here, but I'm pretty sure that's not going to help."

I finally pulled off into a gas station & noticed all the cop cars there, lights off. It was a gathering of hot cops & I watched while they were eating their lunch. Not just because they were hot, but because I was thinking about something. I had been concerned about my car's air conditioning. I had been concerned about running out of gas. The green jeep had been worried about time. The boys had been trying to make the situation more fun. All of us probably felt a sense of exasperation, & frustration. None of us, myself included, had stopped to think about the people who's lives had been irrevocably changed by that accident, or expressed gratitude that we would be arriving home that night, even if it was a few hours late. We thought about ourselves, instead of showing some basic human decency & respect.